An interesting morning

Posted on: August 11, 2008 - 11:33am
An interesting morning
So Last night my son comes in very late and goes by headed to his room and he has a friend with him. This morning he comes a gets me nice and early and wants to talk with me and his friend. So This friend is 16 and sat there and started coming out to me and just needed to talk so he gets going then my son says that he is going back to bed. So this kid and I sit and talk all morning and he is out to most of his family and his mom is fine with it but there are some distant relatives who aren't. And he is getting ready to tell his dad that he is bi but the forcast for that is a bit of surprise and then mostly sunny. He just needed to talk to somone who gets it so my son though he should talk to me. It was an interesting morning. I did feel bad for one thing about his situation. He has been an asst coach with the Special Olympics and after they found out that he was bi the director in this area told him that he can't help coach anymore and isn't welcome there. He was upset about that and I am certainly pissed about so I am going to make sure that I post something to my own bi blog about it and hit some of the bi adult lists.
But all in all he seems to be doing ok and has decided to go ahead and come out to everyone else that he knows. We may even see him around here sometime. But it is times like this that make it really worth it to work with youth. He just relaxed so much over the course of the morning.


Posted on: August 11, 2008 - 2:44pm #1

Very interesting indeed.

It's rather upsetting to read about his problems with his Special Olympics team. Still, I feel rather vindictive about his situation. There has to be someone high enough in the Special Olympics' management who's an ally. I don't expect that he'd want to go back to work with that director, but if I were him I'd be bent on at least letting someone above this director know about this incident.

It sounds like you share some of that vindication.

It's almost hypocritical that those working in the Special Olympics (of all people) would be so discriminatory, an organized who's mission is to celebrate the achievements of a group of people who is still so widely marginalized. Anyway.

Glad to hear you were there to support him.. ^_^

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"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived." - Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

Posted on: August 17, 2008 - 12:39am #2
Several of us who are long time bi activist are moving on the iussue with Special Olympics. But more Importantly the young man has been doing well through this week. He has decided to completely come out and and has the support of a great group of friends. He came and tracked me down teaching marching band camp one night this week just to check in and say hello.
I do not feel that this was an organizational practice and that what was done to him was just a local level bigot. But whatever the case was we are getting to the bottom of it and making sure that at the national level this organization knows that this was not acceptable. They can either resolve the issue with the bigot or deal with it becoming more public.
Posted on: August 17, 2008 - 5:08pm #3
 that's pretty awesome rob... haha i love how your son just goes back to bed, that's love for ya :D
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this is just a ficade

Posted on: August 17, 2008 - 7:38pm #4
Nah that's lazy for ya. Really the goal for the group of them was to get the kid to me and get him started talking.
Posted on: August 18, 2008 - 4:36pm #5
Glad to hear you're going through with resolving the issue! I wonder how them organizer folks would react to something like this...
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"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived." - Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

Posted on: August 24, 2008 - 3:47pm #6
Grr, stupid Special Olympics people!! Glad that you were able to be there and give him someone to talk to. If only more people had someone like that around! 
Posted on: August 24, 2008 - 9:49pm #7
An update for everyone. The young man spoke to me and decided to come out completely to his father. I came into the house running and errand yesterday though we were technically camping. My sone cam up[stairs and told me that his friend was here and a little upset.  I spoke to the kid and he told me that his sister had called and told him that their dad was beinjhg rushed to the hos[pital but that he had not heard anything else and she wasn't answering the phone. He didn't know what to do and was starting to panic. I calmed him down and he just held on to me like a little boy. I got through to the hospital and I was with him when they explain to him that his father had just died. He just kind of became that little kid that I remember from years ago. He just held on and cried. He will be ok but he is in his own season of hell right now. He is a good kid and if anyone here who does pray can spare a word for him or anyone else just a quick thought it will help. BTW his father was not a phobe and had no problem with the subject.
Posted on: August 30, 2008 - 11:53am #8

Oy vey... Well, it's nice to hear his father wasn't a phobe.

That's tragic... =( Glad you're helping him through it. 

__________________

"No one has ever said that life is to be easy. Only that it is to be lived." - Grandmother in "The Road to Rankin's Point" by Alistair Macleod

Posted on: December 19, 2008 - 3:43pm #9
I'm sorry.
I just don't see the big deal in coming out as "bi".
Posted on: December 19, 2008 - 9:43pm #10
Coming out is coming out. It is a process of accepting the self and accepting others. Should bi people stay in the closet then?